Tag: Alamo Fire

There have been no major changes in the status of the Alamo Fire east of Santa Maria, California in the last couple of days. The Incident Management Team fine tunes the mapped perimeter every day, mostly to make it more accurate.

Satellites have not detected any large heat sources during the previous 24 hours. This does not mean the fire is out; just that what is still burning can’t be detected by the sensors flying 200 miles overhead. A fixed wing mapping aircraft with infrared equipment flying much lower at 2 a.m. Wednesday found dozens of scattered hot spots, mostly in the northeast and south areas.

The fire is very large, 28,687 acres, and it will take some time to complete a fire line around the entire perimeter and mop up far enough inside to ensure it will be under control.

A mandatory evacuation order is still in effect for Tepusquet Canyon. Highway 166 is closed from Highway 101 to new Cuyama, and Tepusquet Canyon Road is closed from Highway 166 to Santa Maria Mesa Road.

Above: Map of the perimeter of the Alamo Fire, at about 2 a.m. PDT July 11, 2017.

(Originally published at 8:36 a.m. PDT July 11, 2017)

There was very little growth on the Alamo Fire Monday, with the primary activity consisting of the fire backing down slopes into canyons. Firefighters took advantage of cooler and more humid weather to construct additional containment lines. The Incident Management Team is calling it 28,926 acres.

The forecast for Tuesday predicts mostly sunny skies, 81 degrees, 42 percent relative humidity, and winds out of the southwest at 9 mph gusting up to 14. Similar conditions are expected to continue through Thursday.

Resources assigned to the Alamo Fire include 179 engines, 26 water tenders, 10 helicopters, 48 hand crews, and 29 dozers for a total of 2,027 personnel.

Above: Map of the Alamo Fire east of Santa Maria, California. The red line was the perimeter at about 10 p.m. PDT July 9. The white line was the perimeter about 22 hours earlier.

(Originally published at 9:11 a.m. PDT July 10, 2017)

On Sunday and Sunday night satellites did not find a great many large heat sources on the Alamo Fire east of Santa Maria, California. However they did detect a fair amount of heat on the south end and on the east side near the fire’s edge.

CAL FIRE is calling it 28,926 acres. Technically, that is an increase of about 5,000 acres over the previous 24 hours, but some of that could be due to more accurate mapping.

Portions of Highway 166 and Twitchel Canyon Road are closed. Mandatory evacuations are in effect for Tepusquet Canyon.

A sea breeze on Monday will moderate conditions to be more in favor of the firefighters. The prediction for the fire area is 80 degrees, a minimum relative humidity of 46 percent, and winds out of the west at 7 to 10 mph gusting up to 15.

Above: 3-D map of the Alamo Fire as determined by a USFS mapping aircraft at 12:30 a.m. PDT July 9, 2017.

(Originally published at 6:35 a.m. PDT July 9, 2017)

The Alamo fire was very active again on Saturday, growing on the east, south, and west sides to within four miles of US Highway 101 and the city of Santa Maria. A mapping flight very early Sunday morning determined that it has burned 23,867 acres. It is possible some grassy areas in a previous fire on the west side burned in the afternoon and then cooled before the heat detectors on the aircraft passed over the fire after midnight early Sunday, so it could be a couple of thousand acres larger.

Evacuations have affected about 200 residences, but there have been no reports of structures being destroyed. CAL FIRE’s Type 1 Incident Management Team led by Brett Gouvea has assumed command of the fire.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported Saturday at 3:05 p.m. that the Alamo Fire had grown to 19,000 acres.

The perimeter of the fire shown in the map below was derived from data collected by heat sensors on a satellite at 3:18 a.m. July 8. At that time the fire was about 13,000 acres, but since then the fire has been very active and produced a pyrocumulus cloud over the fire which is a sign of very intense burning.

The perimeter of the Alamo Fire derived from heat detected by a satellite at 3:18 a.m. PDT July 8, 2017.

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(Originally published at 11:33 a.m. PDT July 8, 2017)

During the first 24 hours after the Alamo Fire started at 3:43 p.m. PDT Thursday July 6 east of Santa Maria, California it spread over several hundred acres. But winds Friday afternoon caused it to grow substantially and by late Friday night it was mapped at about 5,900 acres. It continued to grow over the next 12 hours and could be quite a bit larger as this is written just after noon on Saturday.

Mandatory evacuations are in effect for some areas near Tepusquet Canyon.

The fire is 7 miles east of Santa Maria and US Highway 101.

The wind is expected to shift Saturday afternoon to come out of the northwest.

Map of the Alamo Fire. The data was current as of late Friday night, July 7, 2017.

Air tankers are reloading at the tanker base at the Santa Maria Airport. Live cams with views of the ramp are available here and here.